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Day One - PRAYER FOR WATER. AJ shares with us one of the earliest Islamic prayers for water.
Nairobi, KENYA - "Oh Allah, give us water through rain, helping, productive, fertilizing, widespread, plentiful, abundant, bringing back the risen, restoring the broken!
O Allah, give us water with a watering through which You will make the stone hills pour, fill the cisterns, flood the rivers, make the trees grow, bring down prices in all the lands, invigorate the beasts and the creatures, perfect for us the agreeable things of provision, make grow for us the fields let flow for us the teats and add for your strength to our strength!
O Allah, make not the cloud's shadow over us a burning wind, allow not its coldness to be cutting, let not its pouring down upon us be bitter!
O Allah ... provide us with the blessings of the heaven and the earth! You are powerful over everything!" - Al Sahifa, Al Kamila, Al Sajjadiya by Imam Ali Bin Husayn Zayn Al Abidin
In a compilation of prayers for special occasions, Imam Zayn Al Abidin (the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed) dedicates one chapter to a prayer for water, a prayer for rain. Even then, six centuries ago, the dependence on water and on rain was not taken for granted.
This prayer has never been needed as much as it is today. Kenya is in the throes of a serious water shortage.
The country's northeastern province was hit by a severe drought towards the end of last year. People and livestock have been sucked dry of moisture, have collapsed onto a dry sand floor, literally just a bag of skin and bones.
Approximately 75% of the Nairobi area is experiencing water rationing, limited to running water one day in the week. And this too is just a trickle with dire warnings from the City Council that Nairobi only has enough water to last it for the next 8 months before all its resources run dry.
Kenya, the economic hub of the East African region, and its people are dying of thirst and its capital city might have no water in eight months if it does not rain.
Where does one begin to point fingers, to place the blame? Does it start with those who chopped down the Kenyan forests in order to line their own pockets or with those in the country that refill their swimming pools once a week or with those who leave the tap running while they brush their teeth?
And when the situation has worsened beyond blame and you only seek respite ... who do you turn to then? The Big Brother government (who it turns out has literally been stealing from the poor)?
I started praying for water a week ago. I made a mistake. I should never have stopped.
G21 began the year 2006 with a dedication to Water and I am the third Kenyan writer on the issue. I hope its readers do not overlook the implications.
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